February 2012
It might seem obvious that African farmers, who have successfully fed their families and, in turn, much of rural Africa, would be the first to be consulted on what agricultural research would benefit them. But a series of citizen juries, carried out previously in West Africa and facilitated by IIED researchers and partners, have revealed that much African agricultural research doesn’t meaningfully involve farmers or reflect their priorities.
Palm wine, bat stew and carbon markets all made it into the same discussion in Parliament last night – likely for the first time.
IIED has officially moved into its new home on Gray’s Inn Road. The move to the newly refurbished office went off without any major hitches and barely slowed the pace of IIED’s work – a sign that the project board team prepared well for the move.
A group of the world’s leading scientists and experts in sustainable development – and all past winners of the Blue Planet Prize – call for bold leadership at the international level that revaluates and "re-engineers" our economic syst
"Land grabs" are now one of the biggest issues in Africa.
Over the past few years, companies and foreign governments have been leasing large areas of land in some of Africa's poorest countries.
Forests cover almost half of Indonesia’s surface but, because growing new tree plantations and sustainably managing forests has historically not kept pace with the country’s extensive timber processing capacity, it now faces an economic and environmental problem.
Sixteen learning network members from Africa, Latin America and Asia came together to share insights, challenge each other and test assumptions made on issues that either foster or impede the agency of small producers as part of The Global Learning Network of a joint IIED/Hivos Knowledge programme on ‘Small producers’ agency in globalised markets’. The group held its third and last meeting in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia between 13-17 February. It was hosted and organized by Dr. Ronnie S. Natawidjaja, Chairman of the Masters of Agricultural Economics Programmme, Faculty of Agriculture, Padjadjaran University.
Land acquisitions in Africa have often been portrayed as a development opportunity or as land grabbing. What follows are tweets before, during and after a heated debate on whether land grabs are good for Africa, broadcast live by the BBC World Service from Sierra Leone.